A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to blast off earlier this month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but instead of soaring into orbit it blew up on the launch pad. Now, SpaceX thinks it knows why.
SpaceX says the reason their rocket erupted into a fireball was likely due to a faulty helium tank.
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“At this stage of the investigation, preliminary review of the data and debris suggests that a large breach in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank took place,” SpaceX said in a statement.
Thankfully there were no injuries from the explosion, but the loss of equipment could potentially set the company back. Even still, SpaceX is planning on pressing forward by shifting some missions to a new launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
In total, SpaceX has more than 70 missions lined up worth over $10 billion. Now that’s an astronomical amount of money.
